Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Sweethearts Forbidden Fruits - aka the Twilight Candies

I mentioned these candies a few weeks ago, Necco Sweethearts inspired by the movie Twilight. I found them at a FYE store in the mall. The display housing the candy was huge, at least 5 feet tall, making it nearly impossible to miss. The boxes are comparable to the large, movie theater size candies and come in three different designs. Box 1 features the Twilight cast, Box 2 features Edward (as shown above), and Box 3 features Bella. The candies are officially called Sweethearts Forbidden Fruit, playing off of the verboten love between Edward the vampire, and Bella, a human chick.

You would have to live under a rock not to be familiar with Necco Sweethearts, the tiny candy hearts with clever little messages such as "Be Mine" stamped on them in red ink. The Twilight hearts differ from the original in three ways. First, there are four "exotic" flavors - Orange Obsession, Tempting Apple, Secret Strawberry, and Passion Fruit. I'm really digging the strawberry and apple flavors. The strawberry reminds me Strawberry Bubbilicious. I'm not the biggest orange fan, but Orange Obsession is okay. I've had some pieces that taste like a Creamsicle and others that have a nice tang like orange Tic-Tacs. The purple Passion Fruit flavor is just plain awful, almost to the point of being inedible. Seriously, it tastes like bubble bath or a stinky candle that would be sold at the dollar store. The tagline on the box reads, "The Forbidden Fruit Tastes the Sweetest", but in the case of the Passion Fruit, I can't help but think that some things are forbidden for a reason.

The messages imprinted on the Twilight hearts also reflect themes from the story. A few examples are "Bite Me" (vampire...get it?), "I [heart] EC", "Lamb", and "Dazzle." In the story, Edward's skin sparkles like diamonds when he's exposed to the sun. The "dazzle" theme is also played upon by the candies' having a shimmering glitter dusted on the tops of them. The effect is very slight and hardly noticeable on most of the pieces. You may be able to make it out on the purple and orange hearts pictured in my photo above.

I imagine fans of the Twilight books and movie will collect these boxes for their novelty. From a candy standpoint, the strawberry and apple heart flavors are winners; orange and passion fruit need some more work in the test lab.